English For Human Capital Development

English language education (ELE) in Bangladesh went through significant policy reforms towards the end of the twentieth century. A landmark policy change was the shift from traditional grammar-based language education to communicative language teaching (CLT), corresponding to a shift from academic to job-market orientation of curricular goals. The change was facilitated by value-laden discourses surrounding instrumental potentials of the English language, which led to the emergence of a new ELE policy trend called English for human capital development. Although this instrumentalist policy trend is manifest across developing societies, we do not know much about how and under what conditions ELE policy shifted towards human capital development agenda. Taking Bangladesh as a case, our aim in this chapter is to trace the emergence of the human capital orientation of the English curricula and unpack the forces that have shaped this policy trend. We draw on education policies, national curriculum for English, media reports, as well as published literature as our data. The chapter contributes to our understanding of ELE policy and practices in developing societies in a globalised world.